Hi,
I soon began working on project and need to make my choice on a second level domain name for the web site, in order to accomplish a better position in google search results. So I have a dilemma whether to make it short and simple (easy to remember) or longer but descriptive, considering that the "visible text copy" of the site won't be in English, but in other language (for instance Bulgarian). I'm a newby in SEO and hope for your help. Thank you in advance.

I don't think keyword rich domains play a big part in seo (at least not as big a part as many people see to think) so I would recommend going with the shorter and easier to remember domain name.

I do think keywords in urls do play some part though so what I do with my sites is use keywords in the subdirectory names and file names so my url will end up something like:

mydomain.com/general-keyword/specific-keyword.html

I always think you should build your sites for your visitors first and search engines second.

If your looking to optimise for google then your domain name may have a small effect if your keyword has low competition. If its highly competed then it wont really make any difference.

MSN however loves domain names to bits. The verdict is still out for me on its effectiveness in yahoo but i do think that it has a factor to play.

That makes sense. The different engines do weight factors differently in their algorithms and I agree that MSN will pay more attention to urls than either Yahoo or Google. MSN seems to be where the other two search engines were a couple of years ago and mostly working to catch up with the changes.

There is definately a small (just a small) advantage to having the keyword in the domain (and file) name. Ultimately, I'd say if your going to be relying heavily on SE traffic and little type in then go for the keyword-subdomain, otherwise go with something easy to remember.

Long term, I don't know of ANY successful sites that use-domain-names-like-this (only spam). Brandability is important for any long term success, although if your goal is to scrape a few hits off the SE's for adsense and you could care less about your visitors or return visitors-then-by-all-means-dash-away.

That's why I recommend domains that are easy to remember over search engine benefit. I agree that there will be some benefit to having keywords in your url, but that can be accounted for in using keywords in your directories and files names.